that canadian girl

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  • Less than a month til wedding!

    Less than a month left until the wedding! We’ve bought our rings, I got a call today that mine is ready for pickup from the jeweller at Bluewater. I still need to find rose petals for the tables, choose the music for the ceremony and reception, and I still haven’t found shoes and hair accessories yet. The weather has been beautiful, albeit a bit too warm at times… Two days ago was about 30 degrees here. It apparently hit 37c with humidity in Liverpool Street that afternoon. I was supposed to meet my cousin Marjo that day, but we delayed it by a day, which turned out to be a much wiser option for both of us.

    Talking about Marjo, yesterday I went to meet her at Sawbridgeworth station– yes I’m lazy, yes she made it on the train on her own all the way here, yes she’s a trooper with a mighty big backpack!! 😉 She’s had a lovely trip around Europe with Contiki but is ever so tired now! She slept for 12 hours last night, and says she could easily go back to sleep here and now. It’ll take her a few days to recover I think…

    Also, somebody blogged about my blog (!!!), or more specifically about our trip on Adrian’s narrowboat. Andrew Denny at Granny Buttons blogs about his narrowboat adventures. He’s pointed out that I am apparently the 5th person to blog a narrowboat trip. There are soooo many lovely narrowboats out there; hard to believe people don’t have anything to say… Or more likely, those who live that lifestyle aren’t the techiest of people? Today is Thursday and Andrew’s gone to Datchet Reservoir near Heathrow to do his boating course, so he can legally drive his parents’ wonderful Chaparral boat when we go to Menorca in … a month and a day! *jumps in joy* Can’t wait to bask in the sun and swim in the sea! Menorca really is heaven on earth

  • Row, row, row your boat…

    5 weeks till the wedding: Dress picked, check! Wedding venue booked and friends invited, check! Formalities taken care of, check! We still have to choose the flowers and I need to buy shoes and hair accessories, but it’s very exciting to see everything take shape!

    Two of my old university friends are also getting married, it’s crazy to think we’re really growing up and doing grownup things like starting our careers, getting married, buying houses (*cough*right, not yet!*cough*) and some day, having kids (non maman, there’s no rush to start buying baby clothes, THAT’s for sure!) So only 4 weeks until my family arrives, and 5 weeks and a few days until we go on our Menorcan honeymoon, spending our entire days out on the boat… mmmm

    So this weekend was quite exciting, as we spent it on a narrowboat travelling from Central London up to Broxbourne. For the non-UK people, below is a map of the canal length we covered. We started on the left in Little Venice on Regent’s Canal and ended near the Lee Navigation fork between Hertford and Harlow. Had we gone a few hours further, we could’ve moored at Lawrence Moorings and walked off the boat and back into our apartment!

    Here are the photos of this rather unique experience! We got more fresh air during that weekend than we ever do, and we were up earlier than usual (5:15am I was awake!) We also walked around Hackney, a rough area in London, just long enough to remind me why I don’t want to live there. But then we had very nice pizza while sitting in the park, before heading back to the boat for a bottle of wine, avoiding the local pub on the way back as we could see us foreigners weren’t very welcome!

    And I add, for mom and Julie: Yes, the canal is thin, it’s like Rideau Canal, it’s man-made, but yes two boats can comfortably pass next to each other 😛

    This week is a 4 day week, since Monday was a Bank holiday, and as usual, it’s absolutely flying by! Let’s go drink Pimm’s and lemonade on the lawn to celebrate summer!

  • Menorca

    Just a quick update to say everything’s going well. I’m excited and looking forward to the wedding, to seeing my family, and to hanging out in the spa! After the wedding, we’ll be heading to Menorca for a week, as our first honeymoon. We’re hoping to do a cruise next year but in the meantime, this is the holiday we can afford and wouldn’t miss for the world! We have such a great time every year in Menorca. With the wonderful new boat, a Chaparral 210 SSI, we’ll be able to spend the day out without worrying about being too far out at sea or being without shade when the strong midday sun comes out.

    Mmmmm chipirones (battered baby squid), fresh Mahon queso and most of all Spanish cava (local champagne) will fill our bellies while we’re there 🙂 Such an amazing island to spend holidays on; it’s so relaxing, I could happily live at their pace!

    Also, I’m about to post all the Showbizz photos so have a look at the blue box on the right for the link 🙂 (ok the box isn’t blue anymore, but the pics are there… and here… and everywhere! – 22nd September)

  • I love London!

    Mmmmm today is SO nice and warm! Almost too warm, come to think of it… I spent the day in London with my cousin Marjo and her 8kg backpack. She’s going on a Contiki Europe Experience tour for 22 days, then she’ll come back and stay in England till the end of the summer. Regardless of the weather, it was refreshing to be out in London where there’s so much action and movement.

    I met Marjo at her Russell Square hotel, and she looked a bit zombied out from her long overnight flight from Montreal, but she seemed interested in seeing London a bit. She saw London a lot… We walked from her hotel all the way down Oxford Street, since I wanted to go to Debenhams to see the wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses to pick my wedding dress. Turns out they had very traditional wedding dresses, as expected, but all with long trains and lots of little beads and designs. For those who know me, they know it’s clearly not my style! Later on, we saw some chinese-style dresses and those are the ones I’m fondest of, at the moment. I’ll need to go back and try them on, but I think if I pick that, I’ll try and make it a liiiittle bit of a theme for the wedding. Or at least, have chinese style accessories for myself!

    Afterwards, we dropped by Marks & Sparks for a bite to eat. I FINALLY got my sushi fix! Sooo tasty! I really need to learn how to make sushi at home, it’d be brilliant being able to make it myself!

    Tonight, we’re going to visit the wedding venue, Rowhill Grange.(for those I haven’t plagued with photos of the venue already! — I’ll put more in my gallery shortly!) I can’t wait to see what it’s like, finally! I’m excited knowing my whole family will be there, a few close friends and Andrew’s family. It’ll be just the way I want it; friendly, not overly formal and most of all, our own.

    Also, I’m really excited to have figured out it costs the same to send an SMS to Canada as it does to send it to the UK — just 10p! So those whowant to exchange number so we can text and keep in touch, let me know 😉

  • Today the ducks are lazing in the sun

    It’s been two weeks since I arrived now, and I’m really enjoying being able to slip back into my British lifestyle instead of jumping straight into work (though I’m looking forward to making money, that’s gotta be said!) The weather has been brilliant these last few days. Sunscreen smells like holidays. MmMmmmmm Holidays in less than two months!

    Last week was really busy, Tuesday night we went to Kevin’s house for a BBQ. I FINALLY met his lovely girlfriend Lucy who I’d wanted to meet for a good year and a half!! They’re so lucky to have a house! It’s quite big too, and they have enough back garden space to have a BBQ, which is enough to make me very jealous! Ah well we’ll hopefully be able to buy our own within a year or so.

    Wednesday, we went for dinner at Frank & Jeanne’s and saw their adorable two little kittens! Angel, a little ragdoll baby, actually fetches things and brings them back to your feet! I’ve never seen a cat do that! It’s hilarious 😀

    This year, it didn’t take two months after my arrival (like last summer) before my first visit to London. On Thursday, we went to a friend’s leaving do in London, around Liverpool Street. We went to the first pub, Pitcher& Piano, just across from the train station, then went next door to another pub, then again next door, and then across the street. Notice how I don’t remember the pub names past the first one? 😉

    We had a very relaxed weekend to make up for the hectic week. I got familiar with Bomberman Generation on the Gamecube and Andrew started playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I love watching Prince of Persia but would probably not enjoy playing it myself. I suck at those games where you have to have actual skills!

    I hope everyone’s doing well! I see the visits stats going up, but no one’s leaving me comments! Let me know what you’ve all been up to!

  • Keeping busy

    I’ve now been here for a week, and having a great time! This weekend was drinking galore with our old housemates and new neighbours, it was a really good time, and the wine and beer flowed generously! We went to our local curry house, and two of our local pubs, and it felt really good to be back and feel at home again.

    I can’t really explain why I feel more at home here, in a country I’ve spent less than a year and a half in, but I do. Maybe it’s the fact that “a cold winter day” means -5c here, or the fact that I really enjoy the culture, or because I’ve got the nicest fiance on the face of the Earth? All I know is I like it!

    I miss some of my Ottawa friends and my family already, but I’m confident they’re also having a good time (particularly those who just graduated from university!! Woohoo!) and I’ll coax everyone into coming to Europe sooner or later!

  • A few days later…

    I’m finally in England! Sorry for the slow first sign of life, I’ve been catching up with Andrew, with friends, with crazy business ideas, with wedding planning. I think you get the idea – I was busy.

    There’s no way to describe how it feels to be here again. I’m happy to be in an apartment I can call home, yet I’m really disoriented; I’m likely to get in the car on the wrong side, wakeup at all hours of the night and want to sleep in the middle of the day. To try and make me feel at home again, Andrew and I had curry on my first nightback. OoooOOoo how I’d missed that!

    My flight went quite well, I had decent company for possibly the first time on an overseas flight. I napped for about half an hour on the flight so Sunday was a pretty chilled out day where both Andrew and I took advantage of it and slept some more. Andrew never needs a reason for sleeping some more 😛

    Anyways this is just to give a sign of life. I’ll post much more exciting news soon, once I get out of this weirdtired daze I’m in.

  • Tomorrow is the big day II

    Last night (and again today) I went to see the twins’ school show and it was GREAT! It’s not often you’ll hear me say that about anything remotely related to Rockland but in this case, they deserve the kudos! I’ll have TONS of pics online from the show within the next week or so… Thumbs up to the hippie van, it rocked! My little cousin Emmanuelle was the best pink-haired squeegie I’ve ever seen! Toight, man!

    So… I’m in disbelief… Everything is fitting relatively well in my suitcases… Isn’t fighting with the suitcase, having to sit on it before it actually zips up part of the departure process? I MUST’ve forgotten something! For a girl to move away with nothing but two suitcases that are within Air Canada luggage regulations is… not right, is it?

    So I bet tomorrow morning I’ll realize I forgot loads of stuff… but for the time being, let’s get some sleep… Tomorrow will be a very very long day… Next time I write will be from the UK…

  • Tomorrow is the big day!

    I haven’t posted all week, haven’t really spent time at the computer this week other than to study for exams either! Which is rather unusual will agree those who know me 🙂

  • I hate moving!

    So I do… I hate moving, I hate the process of living in boxes for the week prior to leaving, I hate the gloomy feeling of walking around my room trying not to trip on boxes and looking for something to do now that everything but my computer and school binders is packed!

    Moved over 5 times in hardly more than three years, every time having to wittle down the quantity of junk I own, so now I’m leaving for England with two suitcases and one or two boxes labelled for my parents to bring in their luggage in July. Hopefully there’ll be one last move in the next year, when we finally buy our own place somewhere in England, then I don’t want to move for a while!!

    At least our apartment in England is nice, and I don’t start humming the Mile End song every time I walk out the door of our flat! *keeps from complaining more about the crappiness of the Ottawa apartment — see previous posts for that* Lawrence Moorings is beautiful and so relaxing most of the time, and my only roommate will be the nicest boy ever! 😀

    I need to go pile up my boxes in the living room so I can guage whether I need to ask friends to help or if we’ll have enough of my current helpers! Tonight’s the big move, I should get working!